Thursday, February 22, 2007
Food For Thought: Abuse of the Liturgy
Sadly, the Sacred Liturgy has been abused, and many faithful Catholics suffer from this. The confusion that these abuses spreads would cause much harm. In Sacred Liturgy, there is not much room, if I would say, no room for innovations and creativity the tamper with the Liturgy. As Benedict out Pope would put it, “Unspontaneity is of their essence. In these rites I discover that something is approaching me here that I did not produce myself, that I am entering into something greater than myself, which ultimately derives from divine revelation. This is why the Christian East calls the liturgy the "Divine Liturgy", expressing thereby the liturgy's independence from human control.”
Somehow or another, many seem not to understand the part on the 'liturgy's independence from human control' A good friend once said to me, that everything is connected. For instance, faulty philosophy leads to faulty theology, faulty theology would also lead to faulty understanding in the liturgy. And if the liturgy is tampered with, it would spread much confusion among the faithful. It works both ways, faulty understanding of the liturgy, would lead also to a faulty understanding of theology. Liturgy is divine, not something to play around with.
Some like to use the term 'pastoral reason' to justify the 'changes' in the Liturgy. But one must note that these pastoral reasons must be SERIOUS! Therefore, it must not just be for one's convenience. An example of this is the use of extraordinary ministers of Communion. Many don't get the meaning 'extraordinary'. It means that they are out of the ordinary, and don't appear all the time. To cut short the Communion lines, we place Communion Ministers and deprive many from receiving from the priest who acts in the person of Christ (in persona Christi). We have replaced the symbolism of the priest with practicality. And it should not be so.
Those of the older generation who have experienced the Tridentine Rite, they would remember that the priest faces God, towards the east, Ad Orientem, the priest along with the congregation of the faithful faces Jesus, the Sun of Justice. Nowadays, we rarely see that. Even Vatican II documents did not intend the priest to face the people. The question to ask here is, are the prayers of the priest directed towards the people or God? If the priest is to offer the Sacrifice of the Mass to God, wouldn't the prayers in the Mass be directed to God? Yes, the prayers are directed towards God, and there is no reason whatsover to not pray Ad Orientem. If the priest faces the people, in our weak human nature, there is a strong tendency to act. But this problem is averted if the priest along with the people of God would face in one same direction. We have given in to horizontalism at the expense of verticalism. In that sense, by turning the priest around, we seem to give more concern to the people rather than to God. The conversation between God and man has been replaced by a conversation between men. One of the side effects of this one-sided conversation is religious entertainment, people tend to think that Mass is some sort of an entertainment, rather that the Sacrifice that happened on Calvary. And we know that religious entertainment, which only excites the people superficially, won't work out at all.
“Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment. Such attraction fades quickly - it cannot compete in the market of leisure pursuits, incorporating as it increasingly does various forms of religious titillation.” - Pope Benedict XVI
The bottom line is, if the Liturgy suffers, the People of God suffers! We as faithful Catholics should play our part in restoring the Liturgy, that the Liturgy may truly be Divine, not just some work of men.
"Who's going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops, and your religious act like religious." -Archbishop Fulton Sheen
Labels: Authentic Liturgical Renewal 2007, Litugical Abuse, Liturgy
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